i910. 
3-45 
POSTAL RATES AND PARCELS POST. 
I am sorry to sec the unfair and short- i 
sighted attack of J. D. G. (Indiana) on 
page 194, and I do not believe one sub- j 
scriber in 10,000 will endorse bis position, 
For the other 9,999 who endorse every I 
position .taken by The It. N.-Y. on parcels 
post and other matters pertaining to Na¬ 
tional legislation, I wish to speak a word. 
The five great express companies are try¬ 
ing to monopolize the parcels post business 
to themselves, in spite of the fact that the 
U. S. mail reaches every hamlet, which 
the five companies do not, and in spite of 
the fact that the U. S. mail can carry the 
parcels cheaper than the five companies, 
since the mail routes are already estab¬ 
lished. and must run anyway, parcels or 
no parcels. In order to secure and retain 
this monopoly, the five companies oppose 
every additional postal facility that the 
people demand. Also, they try to hood¬ 
wink and delude both Congress and the 
people by means of a “press bureau.” With 
this bureau they are continually publish¬ 
ing throughout the newspapers of the 
country articles about the “postal deficit,” 
the injury the mail-order houses do to the 
postal department, the necessity for coun¬ 
try people to buy from their home mer¬ 
chant, and other articles in the same vein, 
all with the view to prevent Congress 
from establishing parcels post. The “pos¬ 
tal deficit” cry is most absurd. Our Gov¬ 
ernment has nine departments—War, Navy, 
State, Treasury, Post Office, Interior, Ag¬ 
riculture, Commerce and Attorney-General, 
all of them instituted for the general wel¬ 
fare of the people and for the successful 
operation of the Government. All of these 
nine departments require vast sums of 
money to carry them on, over a billion 
dollars being appropriated by every Con¬ 
gress. No one complains of the amount 
appropriated for eight departments, but a 
great hue and cry is raised about the ex¬ 
pense of the Post Office Department to the 
Government; in other words, the "postal 
deficit,” while the fact is that of all the 
departments the Post Office is the only 
one which has any income whatever from 
any source other than the Congressional 
appropriations. Congress may appropriate 
$34,000,000 for the Treasury or Interior 
Department to spend on “rivers and har¬ 
bors,” and the people applaud, though 
never a cent comes back to the departments 
from this expenditure. The same is true 
of seven more departments, but when it 
comes to the Post Office Department there 
is a bitter protest against appropriations 
for it on the ground that it ought to be 
“self-sustaining.” Why should it be self- 
sustaining any more than the other eight 
departments? It does the people more 
good than all the rest of the departments 
put together (if we except the Agricultural 
Department) ; and, in fact, there is no 
demand from the people that it should 
be self-sustaining. Of course, the live com¬ 
panies are doing all they can, both openly 
and secretly, to create a demand that the 
Post Otlice Department should be self-sus¬ 
taining, and to this end they oppose par¬ 
cels post on the specious plea that it will 
add to the operating expense of the de¬ 
partment without corresponding increase 
of receipts. To the contrary, paycels post 
would wipe out the deficit, and the live 
companies know this; but they know that 
it would wipe out a part of their great 
profits, and hence they are so bitterly fight¬ 
ing this great public necessity, which is 
enjoyed even by every third-rate country 
of Europe, Asia and Africa, and by every 
first-class nation in the world except our 
own. 
The foregoing will apply, by change of 
terms, to .1. I). G.’s attack on TiD: It. N.-Y. 
in the matter of newspaper postage. He 
has been deceived by the clamor originating 
with the five companies, and wants postage 
on newspapers and magazines increased. 
Now. the public does not demand an in¬ 
crease of newspaper postage, but is most 
strongly opposed to it instead. Even in 
Congress there is no demand for an increase 
of newspaper postage, and I have a letter 
from Senator Dolliver in which he says: 
"I do not think there is much danger' of 
such legislation at present.” The sole and 
single reason why the five companies want 
newspaper postage increased nine times is 
so that the newspapers will transfer their 
mailing business to the five express corn-, 
panies. Cannot everyone see that such" 
transfer will increase the postal deficit, in¬ 
stead of making the department self-sus¬ 
taining? If the Government is to lose the 
postage on newspapers, and the live com¬ 
panies are to get it, will not the postal 
receipts be that much smaller? And if 
newspaper postage is to be increased nine 
times, and the five companies are to get 
the postage, will not the companies lie 
just that much richer? And there is the 
whole “milk in the eoeoauut.” All this 
agitation is wholly in the interest of the 
five companies, and they are at the back 
of it in every step, and are pushing it by 
their press bureau and by every other 
known means, open or secret. Our friend, 
•I. D. G„ is simply a puppet in the hands “ 
ot the five companies, though he does not 
know this; they hold him in their hand 
and push him out before the public, with 
his letter in The It. N.-Y.. while their 
hand remains unseen behind the curtain. 
All this shows how this nation. Congress 
and people, are bound hand and foot by the 
express monopoly, and can have no boon, 
however small, which the express com¬ 
panies will not allow. There is one person 
who is not under the five companies, for 
in all my business correspondence, 1 forbid 
any goods to be sent to me by express, and 
I recommend all citizens of the United 
Mates to take the same stand in receiving 
goods. I heartily thank yon for your po¬ 
sition on the four great subjects of legisla¬ 
tion now before the American people— 
parcels post, newspaper postage, postal sav¬ 
ings banks and oleomargerine, and 1 en¬ 
dorse every word you have said on them ; 
moreover, I do not think you were any too 
severe on ,T. D. G.. but rather not strong 
enough in your reply to him, and I shall 
lie glad if you will discuss these four sub- | 
jects at full length in every issue of the I 
THE RURAL, NEW-fORKER 
paper. They are subjects that come as 
close home to your readers as crop feeding, 
soil fertility, stock breeding, or any other 
branch of agriculture. The It. N.-Y. is a 
paper for the home, and these four subjects 
pertain to our homes. j. c. m. j. 
Pennsylvania. 
R. N.-Y.—We are not worrying about 
postal rates. The attempt to raise them 
cannot be fairly defended and the people 
will take care of it. We shall spend our 
energies fighting for a parcels post. We 
cannot get it without a desperate struggle, 
but if we all work together it will come. 
G. L. E. 
is badly in- 
anything to 
J. c. 
i Speltz in New York. 
M ill you inform me if speltz has been 
successfully grown in this State, and if it 
can be grown on land suitable for oats? 
Prattsburgh, N. Y. i. d, g. 
This grain has not been grown largely 
in the East. It does well in the Northwest. 
East of the Mississippi Valley we think 
oats, barley or wheat will pay better. 
Cow Pea Experience. 
W. F. Massey, in reply to II. ,J. B., Mary¬ 
land, recommends Black cow peas. I do 
not wish to criticise the variety named, but 
we find Black cow peas are very prone to 
shed their leaves, while New Era and Whip¬ 
poorwill cft> not. For this cause Black 
cow peas have lost favor for hay. With 
a late storm this is very noticeable. New 
Era matures a few days earler, a-nd retains 
leaves until pods are all dry. 
Delaware. 
Moles in Pasture. 
I have an old pasture that 
fested with moles. Fan I do 
stop them? 
Madison, Ind. 
We know of nothing better than mole 
traps which we have often described. They 
work on the principle of a spring which, 
when loosened, drives several sharp steel 
rods down into the ground upon the mole. 
The trap is set over the hole’s run and 
the animal loosens the spring as he works 
through the ground. The seedsmen sell 
these traps. 
Cistern with Filter. 
1 have two cisterns at each of four large 
dwellings. The water is noted for purity, 
clearness and palatability. These are dif¬ 
ferent from Prof. King's reply, in being 
built in pairs. To represent take two 
tumblers side by side, connect 12 to 18 
inches from bottom with vitrified pipe, an 
inverted "running trap." One, the receiv¬ 
ing, is filled two-thirds full with sharp 
clean sand. The water must go through 
this filter bed to the storage one and is 
pumped from that. They should be 10 
feet deep at: least, and the arches three 
feet under ground. Such a filter bed will 
keep fresh 15 years. a. p. shannon. 
Pennsylvania. 
Lime and Alfalfa. 
No doubt you are right in advising 
against a mulch of sour muck for Alfalfa. 
Sweet land, alkaline in fact with lime, is 
what Alfalfa needs most of all. Your cor¬ 
respondent asks if he can correct acidity in 
a sandy loam with two tons of ground lime¬ 
stone per acre. Ask him if he realizes 
that there are 2.000 tons of soil in an acre, 
taking top foot, and that his two tons 
would make about one-tenth of one per 
cent of carbonate of lime. Good Alfalfa 
soils need a much greater amount than 
that. Recently in Idaho I saw land that 
had in it 80 tons of carbonate of lime to 
each acre, or four per cent. That soil 
grows wonderful Alfalfa and after the Al¬ 
falfa everything grows well. Tell the man 
to use 100 pounds of ground limestone to 
each square rod. chas. ls. wing. 
Ohio. 
Eureka Planters 
Give Bigger 
Potato Prollts 
You are not 
Betting all tho 
profit out of 
your potato 
land unless 
using a 
Eureka Planter 
—it will do the 
work better — 
save time, labor 
and money. 
_ The Eureka 
Planter fs accurate and automatic. No injury to 
seed, always plants at uniform depth. Three sizes— 
one and two rows. 
Eoreka Flat Tooth Sulky 
Cultivator 
comes In 3 sizes 
8, 10 and 12 
It’s a weedei,' 1 
seeder, 
smoother and 
culti vat o r. 
Sowsall kinds 
of grass and 
grain. Every farmer should have one. 
Write for information about implements 
that save money on the farm. 
EUREKA MOWER CO., Box 840, Utica, N. Y. 
PERFECT POTATO 
PLANTING 
Every farmer knows the importance 
of proper potato planting. Here’s a 
machine that does it perfectly. Has 
none of the faults common with com¬ 
mon planters. Opens the furrow 
perfectly, drops the seed 
correctly, covers it uni 
formly.and best of all 
never bruises or 
punctures the -4 1 
seed. Send a 
postal for 
our f>ec 
book. 
f. Iron Age 
(ImproYedRobblng) 
Potato Planter 
%U^No Misses 
No Doubles 
No Troubles 
BATEMAN MF6. CO., Box 102-P 
grenloch. n. j. 
3S&, . 
H 
, ! 
AN ACRE OF AMATITE 
\ MATITE is making- g-ooci. 
Here is a typical letter about 
it. We g-et many such letters. 
They all tell the same story of 
satisfied customers. Read this 
one: 
* ‘Gentlemen : 
We have in use about an acre 
and a half of Amatite Roofing on 
our plant located in St. Albans, 
W. Ya. 
We are thoroug-hly satisfied in 
every way with the Roofing-. It 
makes a gooch tig-ht waterproof 
covering. We found that it was 
easily applied, and presents a 
nice, bright appearance. It was 
only after careful consideration 
that we decided to use Amatite, 
as it is very important that our 
roofs he tight, owing- to the large 
quantities of expensive lumber 
and turned mill work that we 
carry in stock at all times. 
Yours very truly, 
AMERICAN COLUMN & LUM¬ 
BER COMPANY 
W. W. Stark, President.” 
Notice the size of the r.oofs— 
an acre and a half. Imag-ine the 
work and the cost of painting- 
that big area if an ordinary ready 
roofing had been used. 
Amatite has a mineral surface 
which needs no painting whatever. 
Year after year, in all weather, 
that roof will give perfect service 
without any care or attention. 
An ordinary ready roofing would 
have required painting at least 
four times during the next ten 
years ; and it costs something to 
paint an acre and a half of roof¬ 
ing four times. Figuring over a 
period of 10 years, the Amatite 
roof probably will cost this Com¬ 
pany from >4 to % less than 
ordinary roofing which requires 
regular painting. 
This no-paint feature of Ama¬ 
tite is very important. It is just 
as important for the man who 
uses ten rolls as for the man who 
uses ten thousand. The propor¬ 
tion of saving is the same. 
FREE SAMPLE 
We are glad to send sample of 
Amatite on request so as to show 
the mineral surface and the double 
layers of pitch. A postal card 
request to our nearest office will 
bring it to you by return mail. 
BARRETT MANUFACTURING COMPANY. 
New York 
Cincinnati 
Pittsburg 
Chicago 
Minneapolis 
New Orleans 
Philadelphia 
Cleveland 
Kansas City 
Boston 
St. Louis 
London, Eng, 
x&L 
Better CropsWithHalf TheWork 
You can’t afford to farm without Planet Jr implements, 
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ground for big results and lighten farm and garden labor. 
Over two million farmers and gardeners are now using 
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S L Allen & Co Box 1107V Philadelphia Pa 
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